I'm looking to build a Single Speed out of my Chromo Rocky Mountain MTB. The bike is about 7 years old but has been only ridden about 10 times. It has a nice sloping top tube. I'm thinking I'm going to buy the kit off ebay for the rear conversion. Now what do you suggest about the forks. I have a newer set of shocks on the front-I was wondering where would you get bmx style forks for it? Also are there certain kinds of cranks that need to be used? Also another question-If I use the shocks can I use a newer style bmx stem and cruiser bars?



thanks
Al.

are you going to build a MTB singe speed or a BMX racer out of it?

Surly makes good 26" forks for non suspended single speed MTB's.
you can get a set off ebay with canti mounts for under 50.00.

if you want disc mounts it will cost more (typically)

Lots of questions in that post. I don't know about the kit on ebay, but I suspect it will be some type of chain tensioner. If it is, your main issue will be chainline: It must line up with the rear cog perfectly. You can effect chainline in two ways. First, you can try different spindle lengths in the bottom bracket. That's easy to do, but it is trial and error to figure out what works. The otherway is to move the chrainring to the outer or inner position on the spider. Inner won't look as good, but it will give you some flexibility. Spacers can fine tune this method.

Forks: If you move from a suspended fork to rigid, you generally need to get a suspension corrected fork. Suspension forks are higher than rigid forks (generally speaking), so frames designed for suspension forks have slack angles so that when the suspension is compressed, the handling doesn't get too twitchy. Accordingly, the axle to crown length on the suspension fork should equal that of the rigid fork. However, sometimes the frame angles are so slack that the rigid fork's axle to crown length can be somewhat less than that of the suspension fork.

Bars and stem: If your fork/headtube is 1 1/8", then a modern BMX stem will fit just fine. The clamp area of BMX bars is 22.2 -- compared to 25.4 and higher for MTB bars -- so you would be required to move yo a BMX bar.

sheldonbrown.com has a lot of useful information on SS conversions.

Hope this helps.

Misfit Psycles sells decent conversion kits and specializes in singlespeeds.

If you want to use a rigid fork, a suspension corrected fork will be required (assuming your bike came with a fork). As mentioned, the Surly (or Dimension) fork is a good choice.

If you don`t need a front brake than the new Blackmarket/S&M fork is the hot ticket. You can also look to Identiti, DMR, or NS Bikes.